This application relates to the discovery that mesophase pitch containing quinoline insoluble materials can be converted to a solvated mesophase pitch suitable for producing carbon fibers and carbon artifacts. Solvated mesophase pitch which has a substantial quinoline insoluble content can be prepared from feedstocks which are mesophase pitch in part or in total and which contain quinoline insoluble materials. Certain advantages are achieved with solvated mesophase pitch obtained by this process including the ability to use otherwise undesirable feed stocks in the solvent extraction process to produce a solvated mesophase pitch, and the ability to produce a mesophase pitch which, when solvated, melts at a temperature suitable for spinning into fibers or forming other structures but, when dried (non-solvated), will not melt on heating to temperatures suitable for carbonization.